How to Transcribe a YouTube Video (Free)
Most YouTube videos already have their words written down: the captions. Getting a transcript means getting at that text. Here are three ways to do it, which one fits your job, and what to do when a video has no captions.
Before you start: it's all about captions
When people say "transcribe a YouTube video", they usually mean "get the words as text". YouTube already has those words for most videos, as captions. Some captions are uploaded by the creator and are usually close to exact. Others are made automatically by YouTube from the sound, and those often get names, numbers and punctuation wrong.
Every free method below reads those captions. So the first question is simple: does the video have captions? If the CC button on the player turns captions on, or you see Show transcript in the description, it does. If not, skip to what to do when there are no captions.
Method 1: YouTube's own Show transcript (read along)
Best when you want to read or search a video once, on a computer.
- Open the video on youtube.com.
- Open the description under the video (click …more).
- Click Show transcript. The transcript opens next to the video and scrolls as it plays.
- Click any line to jump to that moment in the video.
This is free and built in, and it always shows the whole video. The downsides: it's made for reading on the page. There is no download button for viewers, and if you select the text to copy it, the times come along with the words, so you have to clean it up. YouTube's help page describes these steps for a computer. The phone app has changed its layout often, so if you can't find the button there, use a computer or a transcript tool.
Method 2: Paste the link into a transcript tool (get a file)
Best when you want to keep the text: for notes, quotes, subtitles or a blog post.
- Copy the video's link from the address bar, or tap Share then Copy link. Links like
youtube.com/watch?v=…,youtu.be/…, Shorts links andyoutube.com/live/…all work. - Paste it into the box on our YouTube transcript generator and click Generate Transcript.
- The text appears with the time of each line, usually in about 10 seconds, because the tool reads the captions instead of listening to the video.
- Copy it, or download it as TXT (just the words), SRT or VTT (subtitle files that keep the times).
Here is what the result looks like. These are the first lines of our tool's real output for a 67-second NASA video (NASA videos are public domain):
| Time | Line |
|---|---|
| 0:00 | This is the moment where we should all start believing again. |
| 0:03 | Now bound for the Moon. |
| 0:05 | America is returning to the Moon to build a Moon Base. |
| 0:08 | NASA has selected Blue Origin, Astrolab, Lunar Outpost. |
| 0:13 | Congratulations to Astrobotic, Firefly, Intuitive Machines. |
Notice that lines break where the caption breaks, not at the end of a sentence. That's how captions work, and it's why the TXT download is easier to read than copying from YouTube.
On our free plan you get 1 video every 30 days without an account (+1 when you sign in), and the result shows the first minute. Pro ($13.50 a month) gives full transcripts and up to 10 links at once. Other free tools have different limits. Our YouTube transcript generator page compares the main ones, including where theirs are bigger than ours.
Method 3: Download the captions from YouTube Studio (your own videos)
If you uploaded the video, you can download its caption file directly:
- Open YouTube Studio and click Subtitles in the left menu.
- Click the video. Next to the language you want, click Edit.
- Open Options (the three dots) and choose Download, then pick a format.
This gives you the full file at no cost. It's also the place to fix mistakes in the automatic captions first, so every transcript made from your video is better.
Which method should you use?
| You want to… | Use |
|---|---|
| Read along or find one moment | Show transcript on YouTube |
| Keep the text, quote it, or reuse it | A transcript tool (TXT) |
| Add subtitles to a clip in a video editor | A transcript tool (SRT) |
| Get the captions of your own video | YouTube Studio |
| Compare what several videos say | A tool that takes several links and summarizes them |
What to do when there are no captions
It happens more than you'd think. In September 2026, 15 of the YouTube videos people pasted into our tool had no captions at all. Most were talks in Chinese, Arabic or Urdu, plus a few music clips. Our tool tells you when this happens, and the try doesn't count against your limit.
- It's your video: automatic captions can take a while after upload. Check YouTube Studio → Subtitles, or upload your own caption file there.
- It's someone else's video: ask the creator to add captions. It also makes their video easier to follow for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing.
- You need a careful text of a recording you have the rights to: a human transcription service works from the audio. Rev, for example, lists human transcripts at $1.99 a minute.
Tips for a clean transcript
- Check names and numbers. Automatic captions spell names the way they sound. Fix them before you publish or quote.
- Keep the time next to a quote. Anyone can then open the video at that second and hear it for themselves.
- Add the speakers yourself. Captions rarely say who is talking, so in an interview, mark who said what.
- Search instead of scrubbing. In a long talk, press Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac) in the transcript to find the part you need.
FAQ
How do I convert a YouTube video to a text file?
Paste the video's link into a YouTube transcript tool and download the result. TXT gives you just the words; SRT and VTT keep the time of each line. YouTube itself only shows the transcript on the page, with no download button for viewers.
How do I get the transcript of an entire YouTube video?
YouTube's Show transcript always shows the whole thing, so you can read or copy all of it there. In a transcript tool, check the limits: our free plan shows the first minute of a video, and Pro gives the full transcript. If it's your own video, YouTube Studio lets you download the full caption file.
Why is there no Show transcript button?
Usually because the video has no captions. Show transcript only appears when the video has captions, either uploaded by the creator or made automatically by YouTube. A transcript tool that reads captions can't help then either.
What if the YouTube video has no captions?
If it's your video, upload it and give YouTube time to make automatic captions, or upload your own caption file in YouTube Studio. If it's someone else's, ask the creator to turn captions on. If you need a careful text of a recording you have rights to, a human service such as Rev ($1.99 a minute) is an option.
Does this work for YouTube Shorts?
Yes. Shorts have captions the same way regular videos do, and transcript tools take Shorts links. On our free plan, Shorts of a minute or less come back in full.
Can I transcribe a whole playlist at once?
Not from the playlist link in our tool. Paste the links of the videos you need instead — 1 at a time on the free plan, up to 10 at once on Pro, with one combined summary.
How accurate is a YouTube transcript?
It is as accurate as the video's captions. Captions the creator uploaded are usually close to exact. YouTube's automatic captions often get names, technical words and punctuation wrong, especially with accents or background noise. Check names, numbers and quotes against the video before you use them.